Winning "legit" KOJ strategy (feedback encouraged)
Thanks to some outstanding responses to my previous thread, I have finally embarked on a successfull KOJ campaign, and done it without resorting to cheap tricks like using generals to rush enemy settlements in opening turns or "fortifying" merchants with armies. From the get go their are a few concepts you have to come to terms with playing KOJ.
1. Your units are expensive and your economy sucks. Get used to winning battles where you are outnumbered. Learning to use your knights strategically is the key. Pin down your enemy's line with spearmen and then flank with your knights to either a.) smash the enemy line's backside or b.) clean out the enemy's archers. Make sure they don't get bogged down in large melee battles, as they will die in this mod.
2. Until you take Antioch, you will see red script and negative signs in your treasury block.
3. Makuria and Armenia (and usually Georgia) will instantly ally with you.. after this diplomacy becomes a very difficult challenge with the rest of the factions the rest of the game.
4. Don't get too wrapped up in merchants, as KOJ seems to produce a lot of low quality ones that will get eaten alive. Find other ways to develop your economy.
Now for the strategy.
Phase 1 (establishing base): The first hurdle you will run into is an expensive army and weak economy. Max out your taxation and take Baalbek and then Antioch ASAP. It is imperative to get to Antioch before the Armenians. I am convinced this is the essential first couple turns if you want to see 1200 AD.
Phase 2 (build up): Once you have captured these two cities, your options for conquest become pretty limited, as their are few easily attainable rebel settlements and war with the Ayyubids can be disastrous at this point. Aleppo is a bad rebel target because Mustafa's horse archer hordes will chew your slower, heavily armored army to pieces. Now is the time to build up an economy in the "grace period" before your enemies invade from all sides. If you can, try and secure a trade agreement with the Romans. Focus on developing Antioch as a trade center to base your economy, as this is the only province that has much economic potential and give you the most bang for your buck on economic upgrades.
Now is also the time to build essential structures for the military, as you start out with very little recruitment options. Build a templar order station in Acre to start producing templar spearmen. Work towards ranged unit structures in Acre and Kerak.. this is expensive and time consuming but you will need those precious crossbowmen to defend your cities and lines, and turkopole archers to soften up the enemy line. Building a hospitaler station in Jerusalem to get hospitaler light cavalry which will be essential to chase horse archers, harass ground archers, and pin down enemy cavalry for the knights/spearmen to dismember, as well as protect your flanks. Basic infantry structures in castles will provide you with poulain men at arms for flanking and attacking enemy infantry and spearmen. Basic infantry structures in cities provide you with halberdiers.. assault infantry in a pinch, and spearmen to aid the templar spears in forming the line. An Abbey in Jerusalem will give you two advantages: 1.) access to priests to spread catholicism (aka reduce religious unrest) and 2.) Norman knights, a very powerful knightly order that you can use as your heavy cav early in the game.
This is the phase that will make or break your campaign. Plussing up your economy and building a military infrastructure with limited resources is a very delicate balance, and if you fail to do this properly the rest of the campaign will suck. A little bit of luck helps out here as well.
Phase 3 (Expansion): This is where the strategy for KOJ begins to diverge IMHO. You have to know the right moment to go on the offensive against the Ayyubids.. too soon and you will be overwhelmed, too late and they will seize the initiative, invade, and you will be overwhelmed. In my campaign, I waited until my economy was stable and military infrastructure was developed enough to afford and produce a balanced army. My moment to attack came with a stroke of luck when the Romans attacked the Ayyubids (they were also at war with me). I quickly made use of this blessing and attacked Syria.. as this region is isolated from the rest of the sultanate. I immediately scouted the one large stack in Syria (almost always Fahim) and engaged and destroyed him in a field battle in northern Syria. After this, I decided to take the north provinces first, as Damascus will produce hordes of levies.
Once isolating Damascus, I quickly laid siege while a.) maintaining garrisons in the south to avoid southern incursions and b.) using my remaining troops in a seperate army to attack all reinforcements enroute to Damascus and keep it cut off.. it is tough enough without reinforcements.. This required a very efficient use of what forces I had, not a single soldier was left "un-utilized". I laid siege to Damascus, and almost lost when the newly generated hordes of ahdath spearmen and m hunters sallied with the remainder of the armies I had previously destroyed as a core. My saving grace was using my knights to break the weak morale of the levy units, and a band of mercenary horse archers to harass and distract the enemy's main effort. I ended up slaughtering 2100+ enemy with my 800 ragtag campaign troops losing about 300-400.
Once I captured Damascus after the failed sally, everything suddenly seemed to fall into place. The next turn a.) my coffers were full b.) the ERE declared a ceasefire, and with some financial encouragement from the spoils of Damascus, actually ended up my ally in the same negotiation! Their posture immediately went from very poor, to reasonable, to friendly. Also, on the same turn the pope announced a crusade! I havn't seen the European crusades yet but assume they will arrive in a couple turns.
This leads me to believe the key to this phase of operations is to capture Damascus as the end objective.
I am currently postured for phase 4, Egyptian Crusade (Romans have already taken Damyut.), and am well into my 4th and most successful KOJ campaign. It has been very rewarding, as it has taken meticulous economic and military development and very intense strategical and tactical manuevering, and a fair dose of good luck to reach this point at 1202 AD. It is incredible how amazing of a job the BC team has done in producing such a historically accurate, strategically stimulating mod that captures the atmosphere of the Crusades to nearly perfection. My hat is once again off to them, their mod continues to provide hours of enjoyment and enrichment.
I appreciate any feedback on the strategies I have mentioned. Sorry this got long winded, but I have seen a lot of questions about KOJ tactics and wanted to summarize what I have learned from the game and other players.
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Originally Posted by Teutonic Joe
Once key major cities are taken, income will nicely flood in. Most interesting part would be that I even didn't take Antioch, I was invaded by Ayubbids before that. One can make 2 pretty nice stack with starting units.
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They have both the Georgians and Turks as protectorates and ERE has been destroyed. I am allied with Armenia and they are controlling Aleppo and Edessa only. KoJ controls the southern coast of Anatolia.
